Golf club with carburized tungsten face insert

ABSTRACT

An improved golf club head design for irons is presented which provides a carburized tungsten alloy insert in the club face. The carburized tungsten alloy insert improves the club&#39;s center of gravity and center of mass characteristics and presents a harder surface to the golf ball, improving club face longevity. There are also improved rebound characteristics seen with the use of a carburized tungsten alloy club face insert.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to golf clubs with club face inserts.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Golf club heads with inserts are an old field of invention, some clubinventions dating to the 1880's and earlier. The recent golf club headdesigns using inserts in the club's striking face have attempted toaccomplish two separate goals: change the location of the center of massor center of inertia of the club head and change the reboundcharacteristics of the club face when the ball strikes the club.

Golf clubs were historically categorized as either woods or ironsdepending on the composition of the materials used to form the heads.Although the categories of woods and irons have continued, the materialshave changed drastically. An active field for players have driven thetechnology of fabricating golf clubs heads a far way from the originaldesigns

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention consists of a golf club of the “iron’ type, with a flatstriking surface set an an angle to the hozel of the club shaft with aninsert in the striking surface, or “face” of the club. This inventioncan be applied to irons of any type, from wedges through the long irons.

The inset is the same shape as the scored portion of the face of theclub. The scoring lines, which are horizontal, will be containedentirely within the insert surface. The surface of the insert and thesurface of the remaining club face will form a continuous, flat,striking surface.

The use of inserts in the striking face of the club is related toimproving the longevity of the club and changing the location of theclub's sweet spot. In addition, inserts can give an adjustable center ofgravity and can aid in selectively weighting the perimeter of the golfclub head so that the largest possible “sweet spot” can be achieved, toprovide an increase in the inertial moment of the golf club head duringthe swing, and/or to provide a feel of a solid impact and control whenthe club is swung and strikes the ball and to provide the most desirablesonic characteristic when the golf club hits the ball.

This invention uses a carburized tungsten alloy metal insert to increasethe longevity of the club face and add additional weight to the centerof the club face. The carburized tungsten alloy is harder than the steelusually present in cast head clubs and the insert will provide improvedrebound characteristics when struck by a golf ball.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the golf club head.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the club head.

FIG. 4 is a cross-section view of the club head.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, the present invention is an improved golf club head design,with a golf club head 103 and one or more metallic inserts 101.Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 4, in the preferred embodiment, theinvention has a single insert 101 in the golf club head 103, the insert101 approximately one-half the thickness of the golf club head 103 atthe thinnest portion of the golf club head 103, the insert 101possessing a plurality of scoring lines in its upper surface 102. In thepreferred embodiment, the insert 101 is made from carburized tungstenmetal.

The insert 101 is placed fixedly in the insert cut-out 104, which is aninsert-shaped recess in the golf club head 103. The mechanisms forsecuring the insert 101 in the cut-out 104 include gluing, welding, andbrazing. In the preferred embodiment, the insert 101 is brazed into thecut-out 104.

The insert 101 has a plurality of scoring lines in its upper surface 102that correspond to the grooves cut into a single-metal cast golf clubhead. The scoring lines are only present on the insert upper surface102.

While the present invention has been described above and a preferredembodiment of the invention has been identified, changes andsubstitutions of equivalent features can be made without departing fromthis invention. Those skilled in the art of golf club design willrecognize that many variations of this described embodiment of theinvention can be resorted to without leaving the boundaries of thisspecification and associated claims below.

1. a golf club with a metal insert in the striking surface of the club,the striking surface of the club possessing a recess, the metal insertthe same shape and size as the recess, the insert placed in the recessand attached to the striking surface with an attachment method, theupper surface of the insert and the striking surface forming a smoothplane when the insert is attached, the upper surface of the insertpossessing parallel scoring lines cut into the upper surface of theinsert with a scoring method.
 2. The golf club of claim 1 where themetal insert is comprised of carburized tungsten.
 3. The golf club ofclaim 1 where the attachment method is brazing.